Up in smoke. During the 2018 General Assembly session a bill to decriminalize marijuana was killed in committee. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted along party lines on that bill, SB 111. All nine Republican Senators on the Committee voted to keep marijuana possession (in any amount) a criminal act in Virginia while all six Democratic Senators voted to decriminalize pot. To be clear – the vote was to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, it was not a bill that proposed legalizing marijuana.

Here today, here tomorrow. Decriminalization foes won the SB111 battle in 2018 but the war goes on. The lines are drawn for the next skirmish. As Sen Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham), who voted against decriminalization, said … “It’s an issue that isn’t going away. We’re going to be talking about it for a long time.” That’s an interesting comment from a prohibitionist. One can only hope that Sen Obenshain knows that time and further dialog are both working against him and his fellow pot prosecutors. If he doesn’t understand that I’d really like to ask him what he’s been smoking.

Arrested development. Subsequent to the committee vote on decriminalization, statistics were released that revealed arrests for marijuana possession in Virginia shot up in 2017, increasing by 20% over 2016. Apparently, prosecuting Virginians for possession of a plant is a large and fast growing business in the Commonwealth. One can only guess how much criminalizing marijuana costs Virginia or how many Commonwealth’s Attorneys have jobs based on pot possession being a crime.

Oh wow … what’s a voter … man? A poll on the question of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in Virginia was published in the midst of the 2018 General Assembly session. Conducted by the Watson Center for Public Policy and Christopher Newport University, the poll found that 76% of Virginians favored decriminalization. And the Republican politicians in Virginia keep wondering why they are continually losing their power and influence in Virginia. Perhaps they would be well advised to just roll that number around in their heads for a while … seventy-six percent.

2019. 2019 is an election year for Virginia’s state legislature. Democrats will push another marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2019 General Assembly session. Then they will beat the Republicans who opposed the bill over the head with those votes in November.

LOL. I only have to get to DC to legally grow my own, Maryland to avoid criminal penalties or Massachusetts to buy the stuff legally.

In fact, space considerations prevented me from delving further into the reasons that marijuana arrests are up so much in Virginia. People (myself included) are guessing that the decriminalization and legalization trends have people forgetting they have the stuff (in their car for example) and just assuming they’ll get a ticket if caught. People in Virginia are more brazen with regard to pot use – whether consciously or unconsciously.

Somehow, I always had perceived Don Rippert as more a “law and order” guy but a thoughtful one so this feels a little “wild”. And sounds like there are not many all-in “recruits” with some of the regulars on BR.

I’m no advocate for unfettered drug use but I also think the uneven way we treat it by our criminal justice system that focuses on the poor, more visible purveyors that get ruined for life at great expense to all taxpayers is just plain fiscally dumb and dumb in other ways that separates families who end up as one parent families with kids who much harder and expensive to educate – to the point where they too end up on the street dealing drugs to make a living. Meanwhile those of better economic and education resources also abuse drugs but end up with very different treatment by the very same criminal justice system. Just compare how black kids on the street selling crack cocaine get treated compared to those who are dealing opioids.

Larry, I believe government has a number of well defined roles. Among those roles are providing for the national defense and protecting the rights of Americans to own private property. I see regulations against the ownership of a plant, in contradiction to the wishes of most Americans, to be horrendous overreach. The fact that it costs a fortune to wage this unnecessary and futile war against grass only adds to my list of reasons to want to see marijuana possession decriminalized.

DJ asks, “how much criminalizing marijuana costs Virginia.” The answer is $81.2M in 2016 according to Cato’s calculations. With the drastic increase in 2017 arrests, that puts the Commonwealth on track for over $100M spent on marijuana prohibition.

Senator Adam Ebbin has prefiled SB997 for the 2019 General Assembly, similar to last session’s SB111.

I wish we could begin by totally decriminalizing industrial hemp and remove the many obstacles to growing it and using it in Virginia. Even though it is still listed as a Schedule 1 drug (complete nonsense) many states have gone much farther than Virginia in cultivating it and developing various processing industries.

This could add to our agricultural output and create many new industries in Virginia. Doing so would increase employment, tax contributions and improve our health and welfare.

Follow Us

Subscribe to blog via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

Submit op-eds

We welcome a broad spectrum of views. If you would like to submit an op-ed for publication in Bacon’s Rebellion, contact editor/publisher Jim Bacon at jabacon[at]baconsrebellion.com (substituting “@” for “at”).